Road shoes with mountain pedals?
 

Currently I have road shoes/pedals with those triangle looking cleats.
Being a huge noob that I am, I have trouble clipping in from a stop. Whenever I start, my left foot somehow always lands on the "unclipable" side, so then I look like an idiot fumbling around for the other side.
So this got me thinking, since some (all?) mountain pedals are two-sided, I would have an easier time with them right?
Assuming that's true, I would still like to use my road shoes. Is this possible? Do I just change the cleats or what?
Thanks in advance!

It's probably possible, yes. Most road shoes will work with at least Shimano SPD mountain cleats and pedals. In fact, I used them for a while just after I got a road bike. I did it for the same reason you mentioned.

But... I later switched to road pedals (Look Keo Sprints) because the small SPD cleats became uncomfortable on longer rides. It took me a bit to adjust to single-sided pedals, but it wasn't too bad. I'd recommend learning to use the road pedals. You'll probably find that the road pedals always end up in the same position, and you'll figure out how to kick the pedal over while clipping in. Practice clipping in and out often during a few rides, and you'll get it. Once you become comfortable with it, you'll be glad you did.

It's possible but it will be very difficult to walk on since the spd cleat is so small and road shoes have flat, slippery soles.

Yep... that's true too. I'd forgotten how much fun that was.

speedplay

You can do this with crank bros pedals. They make a road cleat with three holes and a mtb cleat with two holes. Both cleats will clip into any of their pedals.

Werd.

I use spd and mtb shoes on my roadie for that reason. But being a newb, you just need time to learn how to engage properly.

Find the pointed part of the pedal, use the right section of the shoe (towards the toe) matched up with the point and it all falls together in one motion. technique!

For the life of me, I wasn't able to clip my Quattro cleats to Mallet pedals -- the "pontoons" of the three-hole cleat assembly were just too tall and wouldn't let the cleat itself clip in. I could use them on Quattros and plain Eggbeaters, though, and I can use the MTB shoes with the small cleat on any pedal.

It takes some time to get used to the SPD-SL (or Looks, or those triangle thingies, road cleats) but it does get easier with time. Even so, experienced riders fumble from time to time (at least they dress like experienced riders).

If you go with SPD pedals, you'd be better off buying a shoe designed for the SPD cleat (2 hole). Some of the mountain shoes are soft, but if you can find a solid/stiff mountain shoe then the only real difference will be the addition of sole lugs so you are walking on shoe instead of cleat.

I use SPD's (Shimno A530) on my commuter and have zero problems hitting them (or not hitting them) and SPD-SL's (like yours) on my road bike, which take a little more attention to hit the the first time. But I'm not even a little tempted to put SPD's on my road bike.

All that being said, I've switched pedals and shoes completely at least 4 times so I may be riding something completly different next month.

Crankbrothers Quattros are exactly what you need.

I have a pair of Diadora road shoes that I currently have a set of Shimano SPDs on (mtn pedals), no problems. I would recommend picking up a cheap set of mtn shoes from nashbar or performance and going with those. They are WAY easier to walk around in if you stop for a break and unless your racing, the road shoes don't really give that much of a perormance advantage. I ride Specialized Taho shoes and LOVE them...